Steve Van Zant, left, and Sean McManus are among 11 defendants indicted in a Southern California conspiracy case involving a network of charter schools. Van Zant is a former superintendent of the Sausalito Marin City School District. McManus had ties to Marin charter groups. (Photo via San Diego County District Attorney’s Office)

Just as the new school year is starting, dozens of Marin children could be in educational limbo because of recent indictments in Southern California involving online charter schools.

Richard Kipperman, the court-appointed receiver in a San Diego County case involving an alleged multi-million-dollar online charter school scam, announced in an Aug. 15 letter to California school districts that he was closing the online charter schools involved in the scandal. In Marin, the closures affect 143 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Of those students, 141 were enrolled in an independent study program called California STEAM Sonoma II. The others are 12th-graders enrolled in Uplift California North Charter.

“The Receiver intends to transfer each student’s records to the student’s school district of residence on or about Sept. 30, 2019,” Kipperman said in his letter. “Thereafter, parents, guardians, schools or school districts may request copies of the student’s records from each district.”

Mary Jane Burke, Marin County superintendent of schools, said she has sent the names of the children and their grade levels to each of the affected school districts in Marin. Those include Ross Valley, Novato Unified, San Rafael City Schools, Larkspur-Corte Madera, Tamalpais Union, Reed Union, Bolinas-Stinson Union, Sausalito Marin City, Miller Creek, Lagunitas, Mill Valley and Shoreline Unified.

District officials are planning to contact each of the families directly to make sure the students have found another option, she said.

“I’m going to make an assumption that if your child is signed up for a virtual school and it closes, that you’re signed up for another virtual school — but I don’t really know,” Burke said. “If there are children who, as a result of this, are not yet registered for school, we would welcome them to sign up for public schools, but they should do it ASAP.”

Marin superintendents said they will be contacting families as a matter of protocol.

“There are 44 students who, according to the list we received, live within our attendance boundaries,” said Rick Bagley, superintendent of the Ross Valley School District. “We are going through the list now, but so far do not recognize any of the names as being past or current RVSD enrollees.”

He said the district would make sure the students were situated with a new school option.

“We have no idea what type of program these students were enrolled in, as the list only indicates the names were attached to California STEAM Sonoma,” Bagley said. “Since Heartwood (Charter School) was once operating under California STEAM Sonoma, the students could have been served there, or they could have been independent study students, or perhaps home-schooled students. We simply do not know as we have no further information.”

According to Dana Pedersen, superintendent of the Guerneville School District, California STEAM Sonoma II is not the same entity as California STEAM Sonoma, the latter a charter management group that was formerly authorized by the Liberty School District in Petaluma. While authorized under the Liberty School District, California STEAM Sonoma had as one of its programs the Waldorf-inspired Heartwood Charter School, formerly based in Fairfax and previously called the Heartwood Educational Collaborative.

After California STEAM Sonoma self-revoked its charter with Liberty in early 2018, Heartwood went on its own and, after withdrawing a request for authorization from Ross Valley School District earlier this year, won authorization directly from Liberty, where it is now located.

The school that is being closed by Kipperman is California STEAM Sonoma II. Although similar in name to California STEAM Sonoma, California STEAM Sonoma II is an all-online independent study program authorized by the Guerneville School District.

Pedersen, who posted a warning notice on the district website on July 1 to families “that the future looks bleak” for the online charter, said there were about 1,200 students enrolled in California STEAM Sonoma II at the end of the 2018-19 school year. She said the majority have transferred to a different online charter school, such as California Pacific Sonoma, which is also authorized by the Guerneville district and not affected by the court case. Updates are posted on the district website at guernevilleschool.org.

The independent study students in California STEAM Sonoma II were either on a home school track, using parental supervision, or on a virtual track, which involves online classes. “They did not have a physical site,” Pedersen said. That is in contrast to Heartwood, which formerly used some cabins for classes and offices at a Girl Scout camp in Fairfax.

Pedersen said the district does not expect a financial hardship from the closure.

“We just want to make sure the students have a high-quality program and make sure they land in a good place,” she said.

Other Marin districts said they would also contact the families within their districts.

“We are aware and have the list of students who fall into our jurisdiction,” said Tara Taupier, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District. “There is not a large number of students who could potentially come to us, but as you know, we are already impacted by enrollment growth, and, as a community funded district, we do not get additional funding with more students. We will welcome all students who live within our attendance area.”

Brett Geithman, superintendent of the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District, had a similar reaction.

“There are only a couple students within our district boundaries impacted by these school closures,” Geithman said. “We would gladly enroll and welcome them in our schools.”

Eleven defendants were indicted in the conspiracy investigation in Southern California. The San Diego District Attorney’s Office said the defendants “conspired to siphon more than $50 million from the state of California for years.”

“The defendants sought out small school districts with limited experience in oversight and proposed they authorize online charter schools to earn additional public funds in the form of oversight fees,” the prosecution said.

At least two people indicted in the case had links to Marin. One was Steve Van Zant, former superintendent of the Sausalito Marin County School District, and the other was Sean McManus, who had been at one time linked to some Marin charter groups.